death's men- W.J turner

thesis

in “deaths men” W.J turner presents soldiers as psychologically consumed and spiritually diminished by the brutal realities of war, using bleak imagery and oppressive atmostphere to emphasise the destructive power of conflict. Rather than portraying soldiers as heroic individuals, Turner depicts them as figures overshadowed by death itself, suggesting that war strips men of identity, hope and humanity. Ultimatley, Turner presents war as a force that transforms ordinary men into agents and victims of death, exposing the emotional and moral devestation at the centre of modern conflict

title

• impersonal and collective: soldiers treated as numbers rather than individuals

• personified death- he is playing a game with them and choosing who dies

stanza 1: “under a grey october sky”

• double entendre

• pathetic fallacy of autum (changing point)

stanza 1: “The little squads that drill

Click arms and legs mechanically”

• chremamorphism,dehumanises soldiers with 1 machine

• semantic field of machinery/clockwork: toy factory: toys without autonomy, acting as puppets

stanza 2: “that flies from Death’s trim lines”

death personified as playing a game, survival is up to chance beacuse death rate was so high

“men od death”: already belonging to death because its thier fate to die

stanza 3: “their faces as stiff as stone”

“Click, clack, from twelve machines of bone”

• dehumanised into stone an bone, just a body/ object

• simile reinforces lack of emotiom + stiff upper lip

• alliteration reinforces clockwork and machinery

stanza 4: “ Click, Clack, left, right, form fours, incline

the jackbox seargeant cries”

shows lack of autonom

even sergeant is a puppet to those in power

stanza 6: “Old mens, old hills, old kings”

anaphora- romantacising archaic past in reality of war, reflects those in power taking control of young

stanza 8: “ The rooks from out the taul gaunt trees

in shreiking circles pass”

deathly imagery- natural imagery juztaposes death shows how life goes on while human life is destroyed

stanza 8: “Click, clack ,click ,clackmgo Death’s trim men

Across the autumn grass”

death not described as heroic or noble

tone is muted and sorrowful, makes poem feels more like a lament that patriotic tribute

structure

regular, controlled structure: reflects how war has become routine and systemised

ABCB quatrains: -constant of war in structure

a -rigid- reflects lack of autonomy